Israel has passed a law anchoring itself a nation-state of Jewish people. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel who has been pushing the law since a long time has called it “historic movement in the history of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel.” The government says the bill, passed in the early morning hours, will merely enshrine into law Israel’s existing character. According to this law, Israel is a nation-state of Jewish people, which honors the individual rights of all its citizens.
At a time when it has become politically savvy to deny one’s socio-cultural and religious beliefs and sacrifice the uniqueness of one’s historic-cultural heritage at the altar of multiculturalism, Israel has shown the way that one can acknowledge and feel proud of one’s unique identity without taking the extreme way in either direction. The ethos and culture of many nation states are slowly eroding because the left-liberal, cosmopolitan people who do not care for cultural differences are taking over the center stage in these nationalities. The only countries which do not face resistance in declaring themselves an Islamic state are the Islamic countries. But, these Islamic countries take these laws in extreme directions by declaring the followers of other religions or sects as second-grade citizens. Many countries in the gulf/middle-east /Arab region do not acknowledge people of other religion and ethnicity as their citizens despite the fact that they are living and working there for more than decades. The law in these countries discriminates between people on the basis of race, religion, and ethnicity. This kind of discrimination should not be supported by anyone but simply acknowledging the identity of your country is not wrong at all and Israel has done the same. Accepting others after establishing your own land is something that every culture which wants to survive should do in order to survive.
Benjamin Netanyahu who is an ardent supporter of the law and campaigned across the country to built popular consensus said “Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, which honors the individual rights of all its citizens. I repeat this is our state. The Jewish state” after the legislation was passed by 62 votes to 55 in the 120-seat Parliament with two abstentions. One member was absent. On the other hand, Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said “The Jewish nation-state law features key elements of apartheid, which is not only immoral but also absolutely prohibited under international law.”
The modern state of Israel constitutes 74.7 percent of Jewish people and 17.7 percent of Muslims. It was established in 1948 after, In 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Palestine which recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The Jewish side accepted the plan but it rejected by Arab side leading to the subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw Israel’s establishment over most of the former Mandate territory, while the West Bank and Gaza were held by neighboring Arab states. Since then Israel has fought several wars with Arab countries for its existence. Since its establishment, the economy of the country has grown at very fast rate establishing it in the league of the developed nation while the Arab state of Palestine is still struggling for its existence.
